


To Face Evil

by MinaAffairs



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Shades of Grey, bad things have happened in this timeline, cyborg entrapta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 18:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20277979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinaAffairs/pseuds/MinaAffairs
Summary: Adora finally has a chance to strike Hordak down, until Entrapta puts herself between him and She-Ra's blade.





	To Face Evil

**Author's Note:**

> This started as just another cyborg Entrapta story. Wanting to play with the concept some more. Then it became something else.

It is difficult to face evil. It is difficult to know evil is a person. It is difficult to kill. Yet Adora is here, she is looking down at Lord Hordak. The man that has caused decades of terror and hardship on Etheria. The fight has been hard, but through grit, determination, and what allies remain Adora, She-Ra, has struck him low. His armor sparks, cracked. It's seemingly endless regeneration finally broken. He looks up at Adora, meets her gaze. He is defiant.

They did not meet in some climactic battle. This was not a planned engagement. This was chance. Two forces being in the same place at the same time. It is a chance she needed to take.

She feels the eyes of friends and enemies alike on her. Waiting to see if the She-Ra will strike down evil. Namely she feels the worried eyes of Bow, the one who stood with her here.

He has seen friends willing to take the killing blow before. He is about to see it again.

With a roar of rage and anguish at everything that has been done to Etheria She-Ra brings the Sword of Protection down toward Lord Hordak. It whistles through the air, gliding true toward the warlord’s chest. Adora was never one to aim for the head, even when she strikes against one who has caused so much strife. The blade hits metal, it slices in, it slices through, and then it stops. A combination of resistance and Adora’s own sudden halting of the downard sing.

Hordak is uninjured. 

The Sword is buried nearly elbow deep into Entrapta’s arm. The Princess had dived into its path, catching the blade head on in the final moment.

In Shock Adora releases the sword, stumbling back. “Entrapta!?” 

There is no blood. No bone or meat. There are sparks, and pieces of metal falling to the ground. Entrapta’s hair reaches out, pulling her torn glove away from her arm. Revealing the now mangled metal appendage. “I was worried it wasn’t going to stop for a second!” Entrapta speaks loudly as her other hand grasps the sword and tears it out of her arm. 

Her hair produces the many tools hidden within. The tendrils now pulling and manipulating the mangled arm, splicing new wires, repositioning the surviving servos, bypassing the damage, welding and bolting things back together. Hordak rises slowly behind her. “Thank you Entrapta.” he speaks with a cough, he does not seem nearly as surprised as Adora or anyone else present by this whole ordeal. "She could have taken the rest of you though." He adds, concern oddly clear in his voice. 

Entrapta smiles back at Hordak. "It's okay! I was pretty sure she'd stop once it hit me instead of you." 

As Hordak smiles at her just a little Adora speaks up. "Entrapta are you okay?! Your arm what… are you a robot?!"

Entrapta looks back at the warrior goddess and quirks her head. "No. I just have prosthetic limbs." She holds the sword out to Hordak who takes it from her quietly. Then Entrapta glances at her mangled arm. "I think I'm only going to be about to get three fingers working again." She hrmms.

"W-why? When? Why did you jump in front of Hordak?! I could have killed you!" Adora is low key freaking out now. She's always had a hard time with the killing thing and to very nearly kill someone she actually knows personally is quite nerve wracking. Someone who doesn't really deserve it, in her mind. Also learning that your mental image of that same person is apparently very wrong can be jarring as we.

"Well!" The Princess of Dryl begins. "I have tech prosthetics because I lost all of my original limbs back when-"

"ALL OF THEM?!" Adora shouts. Hordak winces.

"Yep! At different times of course! I wouldn't have survived losing all of them at once! Anyway! I love Hordak and I didn't think you'd follows through if you hit me instead of him."

Hordak smiles a little behind Entrapta and says a simple "I love you too." That hits Adora like a brick. Did Hordak just say he loves her too? Did she just say she loves him?! Some combination of Hordak’s quick comment and Adora’s expression seems to make Entrapta giggle.

Adora stares at them for a moment, then clenches her fist. She needs to remain strong. “Entrapta… the things he’s done. You can’t defend him.”

“Oh but I can Adora.” she flexes her arm, wiggling her three remaining functional fingers. Her hair moves to Hordak, beginning to work on his damaged armor without even looking at him. “The data says you would defend Catra, if I was going to kill her. Wouldn’t you?” the princess is smiling, yet her voice has an air of seriousness to it. Those around them, the participants of this now stopped battle, murmur. Bow visibly winces at the accusation.

Adora falters at that. “I… Catra has done horrible things… she needs to pay for them.” Adora’s fists clench ever tighter, nails digging into skin. She eyes the sword in Hordak's hand. His armor is beginning to self repair again now that Entrapta's gotten the initial work started. Adora has lost her advantage.

“How though? I am curious! Would you kill her? Or would you rather she pay in some other way?” Entrapta asks with some surprising forcefulness.

"Entrapta I…" 

"Do not try to justify your hypocrisy Adora." Hordak speaks now. Moving up to Entrapta's side to take her arm and examine it. "You'll need a replacement." While his voice was hard toward Adora it is gentle with Entrapta. Concerned. The juxtaposition causes Adora pause once again.

"I think I can salvage this one with our supplies back home." She replies. Smiling a little before looking back at Adora. “I liked being your friend Adora. I’d like to still be your friend.” 

Adora is frozen. She hears Bow finally speak, letting out a worried “Adora?...”

Adora has lost so much. She’s been lied to and manipulated. She’s watched Friends descend into darkness. She’s still watching it happen.

Entrapta has never lied. Entrapta is not a good person, and Hordak is an evil one, and yet...

Aren’t any friends she can get a boon? With everything happening.

So Adora finally nods. “He needs to pay.”

“But not like this.” Entrapta counters.

Adora’s eyes close for a moment and she nods again. “Go.”

She watches Hordak and Entrapta nod to each other. Then, surprisingly, Hordak tosses the sword to the ground. The two run.

Bow approaches her, he reaches out to touch her arm. “Adora… are you sure about… letting them go?”

“No.” Her voice is quick and hard as she bends down to pick up her sword. “I’m not Bow.”

“Then why did you?”

“He knew.” Now Bow looks confused. So she elaborates.

“Hordak knew about her arm, her limbs… My whole life I’ve been told he doesn’t tolerate weakness, sickness, injury… and I just watched him take her hand to look at the damage… I just watched them say they love each other” Adora sighs. “And we need friends Bow. It’s just us now and we need friends wherever we can get them if we’re going to save Etheria.”

Bow nods now. He understands. He has always held bottomless kindness and compassion in his heart. Now he looks up toward the retreating Horde Forces, pondering them for a moment. “I think it’s good you didn’t kill him.” He finally says.

Adora just sighs.

It is difficult to face evil. It is difficult to know evil is a person. It is difficult to not kill it when given the chance. Yet Adora is here, she is looking into the distance and watching the evil she has let escape vanish. Decades of terror and hardship left unavenged. 

Because there is so much worse on the horizon.


End file.
